Woman faces 2 felonies in death of DeSales teacher

Saturday

Nov 16, 2013 at 12:01 AMNov 16, 2013 at 1:04 PM

DELAWARE, Ohio - The woman charged yesterday with killing a longtime St. Francis DeSales teacher and coach plans to plead guilty to causing his death. Mary Kathryn Paul, 36, was charged yesterday with involuntary manslaughter and failing to stop after the hit-skip crash that killed Bob Lennon. Both charges are third-degree felonies. Paul could face up to six years in prison if convicted.

Laura Arenschield, The Columbus Dispatch

DELAWARE, Ohio — The woman charged yesterday with killing a longtime St. Francis DeSales teacher and coach plans to plead guilty to causing his death.

Mary Kathryn Paul, 36, was charged yesterday with involuntary manslaughter and failing to stop after the hit-skip crash that killed Bob Lennon.

Both charges are third-degree felonies. Paul could face up to six years in prison if convicted.

In court documents signed by both a prosecutor and her attorney, Paul said she intends to plead guilty to both charges, and she waived her right to both a grand jury and a speedy trial.

Paul was charged two months to the day after Lennon, 64, was killed while riding his bicycle on Miller Paul Road in southeastern Delaware County. Paul lives on Miller Paul Road, about a mile from where Lennon was struck.

Lennon taught science and coached cross country at DeSales High School for about 40 years. His sister, Jeanne Lennon, said he planned to retire.

“The loss is — I can’t tell you how hard it’s been,” she said yesterday. “This was unfortunate and unnecessary. It shouldn’t have happened.”

Paul will remain at home until a court hearing is scheduled.

Licking County Prosecutor Ken Oswalt, the special prosecutor appointed to the case, said Paul has medical issues, and he said people have been monitoring her to be sure she is not driving.

Oswalt said he was not comfortable explaining more about why Paul did not stop that day, but he said she was not under the influence of alcohol.

Paul’s attorney, Michael Hoague, a former chief prosecutor and municipal-court judge in Delaware County, did not return calls yesterday.

Initially, Paul told her family that she had hit a deer, according to documents connected with the case. Her car, a gray Chrysler Sebring, was damaged on the front end. The windshield was shattered.

But in the following days, news outlets reported that investigators were looking for a gray sedan with damage to the front end, and her father, Jerry Paul, became worried.

Jerry Paul, who has been a Harlem Township trustee since 1984, called a friend, Sgt. Larry Dore of the Delaware County sheriff’s office, who lives a few miles from the Pauls in southeastern Delaware County.

Dore looked at the Sebring and, according to search warrants, didn’t believe that the damage had been caused by a deer. He asked Mary Kathryn Paul what happened, and she told him that she had hit a person.

The Delaware County prosecutor’s office removed itself from the case. The prosecutor represents the Harlem Township Board of Trustees and wanted to avoid any conflicts.

Oswalt said he met with both Lennon’s family and Mary Kathryn Paul’s attorney before filing charges.

Jeanne Lennon said her brother’s family agreed to the charges, and she said investigators were in touch with the family every week. She said she is glad Paul has been charged so Lennon’s family can move on.

If Paul, indeed, hit Lennon, it was not the first time she had struck a cyclist.

In 2011, she was driving on Fancher Road in Delaware County, about 2 miles from her home, when she struck a 66-year-old man pedaling a three-wheel bike.

The rider, Billie Harris, was a few doors from his home when he was hit. The crash sent him flying into a mailbox and a soybean patch. He was taken to a hospital with deep cuts in his head, leg and arm.

Paul didn’t stop at first, said Harris’ wife, Janie Harris.

“She went about three or four more lanes down and stopped and thought, well, she must have hit something because she saw all these people run out into the road,” Mrs. Harris said.

Paul told a State Highway Patrol trooper that she was “blinded by the sun,” according to a crash report. She also told investigators that she was on a handful of medications, including some that advise users not to drive or operate heavy machinery until they know how the drug will affect them.

When the Harrises heard about Lennon’s death and that he had been hit by a gray car, Mrs. Harris said, they wondered whether he might have been struck by the same person.

A prosecutor called them last week and confirmed their suspicions.

“Maybe if we would have pursued it, or maybe if they would have checked more into it,” Mrs. Harris said. “But you can’t second-guess yourself. I feel sorry for her; I feel sorry for the family of the guy she killed; I feel sorry for her dad.”